Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats has sunk to 6% – the lowest proportion of the vote recorded by Opinium for the party.

There’s more bad news for the Tories: One of their own had to resign from the Party in the wake of a scandal:

Patrick Mercer, the former shadow minister, has resigned from the Conservative party after being caught up in a sting by journalists posing as lobbyists, having failed to declare £2,000 of the £4,000 they paid him.

The Conservative MP for Newark said he was resigning the Tory whip immediately “to save my party embarrassment”, and would not stand at the next general election. It is understood that he had been approached by a fake lobbying firm seeking help in parliament for a fake client, believed to be related to Fiji.

Mercer is now being urged to resign his seat and it might be UKIP’s first by-election victory!

Mercer, who has said he will stand down at the next election, has a majority of 16,152, but given UKIP’s recent performance, the party would hope to challenge the Tories for victory in a seat which neither Labour nor the Lib Dems can realistically win. UKIP only polled 3.8 per cent in 2010, but won 17.1 per cent of the vote in the Newark & Sherwood District in this year’s county council elections. And, as ever, there is no such thing as a safe seat in a by-election.

And even more bad news for the Tory party: Several councillors (local officials) or former candidates have defected to UKIP! Two in Wales:

Ms [Caroline] Jones, a café owner from Porthcawl who joined the Conservatives in 2009, stood for the party in Aberavon at the general election in 2010 and in Gower at the National Assembly election in 2011.

She said: “I don’t really want to talk at this time about my reasons for leaving the Conservative Party, because I’m very positive about having joined UKIP and want to concentrate on what my new party can achieve.

***

Mr [Chris] Smart, a former Porthcawl councillor, said: “After 43 years in the Conservative Party it was a huge decision to resign. But I don’t regret it for a moment.

“Joining UKIP has been a breath of fresh air for me. Quite a few of the people in the party haven’t been involved in politics before at all, and are very enthusiastic about what UKIP can achieve.”

Councillor Richard Chellew, who represents Wimbledon’s Village ward, resigned from Merton Conservatives late last week, but will remain a part member.

Perhaps this local official will pull a Virgil Goode! (Goode went from Democrat to independent to the GOP during his career in Congress.)

And the Bloggers4UKIP, the verbal fighters for the right, also reports yet another defection!

Stourport Town Councillor, John Holden, has defected from the Conservatives to UKIP.

It is amazing to see political realignment, especially when it is in the right direction! This is like a Tea Party forming and gaining 20% of the vote amid mass defections from the GOP. That move is not necessary here and now but it could happen. Remember, UKIP’s fight is our fight.

Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)